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Rob Ford saga casts shadow on Toronto Centre byelection

Mayor’s problems are finding their way into the federal byelection, as a distraction for voters and a challenge to the candidates.

Campaigning in the Toronto Centre byelection, NDP Leader Tom Mulcair has been drawn into the Rob Ford saga. He says the most recent tapes make it clear Ford can’t stay on as mayor. (Adrian Wyld / THE CANADIAN PRESS)

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford isn’t on the ballot in the current byelection in Toronto Centre.

But his problems are finding their way into the campaign — as a distraction for the voters and a challenge to the candidates.

Two opposition leaders landed in Toronto last week to do some campaigning for their candidates in the Nov. 25 byelection and, like everyone else in the city it seemed, found themselves pronouncing opinions about the Ford drama.

Early Friday morning, at Wellesley subway station, NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair stood before local TV cameras and said Ford had to go.

“The most recent tapes make it clear that he can’t stay on as mayor,” Mulcair said, a day after the Star released a video showing Ford in a drunken rage.

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Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau was out on Church St. on Thursday afternoon when that video became public, shaking hands and posing for pictures with candidate Chrystia Freeland.

One young voter, 20-year-old Julian Hamilton, held up his smartphone and asked Trudeau to do an impromptu interview.

Try as he and the other politicians might, however, it’s no easy task to drag people’s attention away from the Ford saga and get them to focus on the byelection campaign.

Jennifer Hollett, a former journalist who vied to be the NDP candidate in Toronto Centre, is now campaigning all-out for Linda McQuaig, the author and columnist who won the nomination.

“It’s a distraction,” Hollett said. “And yeah, it’s frustrating. I have a candidate that I believe in and I want people to be talking about Linda . . . and obviously what’s happened with Rob Ford distracts from it.”

Hollett was canvassing in a downtown condominium on Wednesday night and as she walked the corridors, she could hear the noise of multiple TVs tuned into the latest news in the Ford saga.

“I could hear people in their condos talking about Rob Ford,” she said.

Hollett said she’s found a way to turn that attention into a conversation about federal politics, and specifically, how voters should expect better of the people they elect.

“Ford represents the worst in politics in the city of Toronto,” she said. “I use it as a reminder to people about why it’s important to vote and to vote for people you believe in.”

Freeland, the Liberal candidate, said she’s encountered a lot of “eye-rolling” over the Ford saga, but also many voters who see this as a human tragedy, not a political one. Many people have been telling Freeland how they feel sorry for Ford’s family and for the mayor himself.

Toronto residents are also worried about their city’s reputation, said Freeland. “They say: ‘Come on! This is not how Toronto should be famous in the world. . . . We should not be a laughingstock.’ ”

Trudeau said this is how he views the story overall, too. “I think Toronto deserves so much better,” he said.

McQuaig said the voter fixation on Ford is “understandable” and as a former journalist herself, she also understands how the story is taking media attention away from anything except the mayoral meltdown.

But she said she has found people interested in the byelection, too, especially as the Nov. 25 date draws nearer.

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